Mr Snyder's Account

Various

Most of the people on deck were standing around one of the petty officers who was at the lifeboat and who was ordering them to put on life belts. Then I heard someone say, 'Get into the lifeboat' or 'Everybody into the lifeboat.' We were on the outside of the circle, but when that order came nearly every one in front of us stepped back or aside. They did not want to get into that boat. It was nearly sixty feet above the water and some of them said they felt safer where they were. The Bishops were right in front of us and we moved up behind them. When I found myself at the lifeboat I hesitated and probably would have waited as the others were doing, but someone, I think it was the petty officer, took my wife's arm and pulled her to the boat. I followed her and someone took my arm and pulled me so hard that I missed the edge of the boat with my foot and fell down into it. Two or three women who were following slipped also and fell on me. The officer seemed to have trouble to get enough persons into the boat to fill it, and when it was nearly full there seemed more men than women in it. ...it was then just half-past twelve. - New York Herald, April 20, 1912

However, 26 passengers were crowded into our boat, with three of the crew to row, and the boat was so full when it struck the water that the oarsmen could not row without inconvenience. Some people stood up and some sat on the bottom of the boat. Our boat was the first to be lowered on the starboard side of the Titanic, although others had been let down on the port side at the time. In our boatload there were 16 men and 10 women. The sailors pulled leisurely away from the steamship so that the next lifeboat would not come down upon up (sic). The first boats were lowered without confusion and in perfect order. There was no weeping or wailing in our boat. After pulling away 150 to 200 yards, our boat rested.....one of the oarsmen, who was a lookout in the Titanic's crow nest...
We searched the boat for a lantern, but could find none. Neither could we find provisions, nor water, nor a compass.....We weren't picked up until 5:30 a. m., the Carpathia having rescued six of the lifeboats before we were reached... - The Ireton Ledger (Ireton (Iowa), 10 May 1912, p. 3

''The nearest thing to trouble that occurred in our boat was when some man would refuse to row. 'The baron,' a great big German, wouldn't take a stroke. A little Englishman also held back until the other men grew angry. Then he admitted he had never touched an oar in his life but said he would do his best. He tried with all his might to help the boat along. He told me afterward the only reason he refused to row was that he was afraid we would laugh at his awkwardness.'' - The Star Tribune (Minnesota), 22 April 1912)

[Mr. Snyder had described the three crew members in their lifeboat earlier and this little Englishman seems to have been a passenger.]